Leila Aboulela
Author
Description
History professor Natasha is researching the life of Imam Shamil, a 19th-century Muslim leader who led a resistance against Russia during the Caucasian War. She discovers that Oz, one of her students, is descended from the historical figure and also possesses his legendary sword. As their relationship intensifies, Natasha is forced to confront issues of her own Muslim heritage in the post-9/11 world.
2) Bird summons
Author
Description
"When Salma, Moni, and Iman-friends and active members of their local Muslim Women's group-decide to take a road trip together to the Scottish Highlands, they leave behind lives often dominated by obligation, frustrated desire, and dull predictability. Each wants something more out of life, but fears the cost of taking it. Salma is successful and happily married, but tempted to risk it all when she's contacted by her first love back in Egypt; Moni...
3) Lyrics Alley
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Description
Their fortune threatened by shifting powers in Sudan and their heir's debilitating accident, a powerful family under the leadership of Mahmoud Bey is torn between the traditional and modern values of Mahmoud's two wives and his son's efforts to break with cultural limits.
4) Minaret
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Description
"With her Muslim hijab, with her down-turned gaze, Najwa is invisible to most eyes, especially to the rich Arab families whose houses she cleans in London. Twenty years earlier, Najwa, then an aristocratic Westernized Sudanese, could have never imagined this new life. She was a student at the University of Khartoum, but her focus in life was on fashionable clothes, pop music, and parties. When a political coup forces Najwa's family into exile in London,...
Author
Description
Sammar is a Sudanese widow working as an Arabic translator at a Scottish University when she begins to translate for Rae, a secular Islamic scholar. The two develop a deep friendship that awakens in Sammar all the longing for a life she has repressed. As Rae and Sammar fall in love, he knows they will have to address his lack of faith in all that Sammar holds sacred. An exquisitely crafted meditation on love, both human and divine, The Translator...